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profile: n. 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text file automatically
read from each user's home directory and intended to be easily modified by
the user in order to customize the program's behavior. Used to avoid
hardcoded choices (see also
dot file, rc file). 2. [techspeak] A report on the amounts of time spent in each routine
of a program, used to find and tune away the
hot spots in it. This sense is often verbed. Some
profiling modes report units other than time (such as call counts) and/or
report at granularities other than per-routine, but the idea is similar.
3.[techspeak] A subset of a standard used for a particular purpose. This
sense confuses hackers who wander into the weird world of ISO standards no
end!
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